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This is the early review of the 2024 Toyota Grand Highlander.
I'm Mike Quincy.
And I write about cars and test them at Consumer Reports
Automotive Test Center.
I'm in the main garage here at our facility.
Right behind me is the new Grand Highlander, which we just
bought for our test program.
We got the XLE trim line, which is the mainstream
model that most people buy.
The all-wheel drive XLE stickers at $44,670.
We added the big moonroof, heavy-duty floor mats and cargo
tray, and a few other odds and ends.
The grand total came to $49,475.
So the Highlander has been a mainstay in Toyota's lineup
for over 20 years.
It's consistently done well in Consumer Reports testing.
Really solid reliability.
But you've got to ask yourself, why did it
take Toyota so long to bring out a super-sized Highlander?
The Grand Highlander fits between the regular Highlander
and the enormous Sequoia in Toyota's lineup.
It competes with the Honda Pilot, Mazda CX-90, and the Kia
Telluride, just to name a few.
The standard powertrain is a 265-horsepower,
2.4-liter turbocharged four-cylinder engine,
and it's hooked up to an eight-speed automatic
transmission.
This combination should return about 23 miles per gallon
overall, according to the EPA.
Hybrid powertrains are also available.
One of the many tests that we do for all of our cars
here at the test track is our own fuel economy testing.
So it's going to be interesting to see exactly how the Grand
Highlander turns out.
Give credit to Toyota for having lots of standard safety
features on all of their models.
And the Grand Highlander is no exception.
Automatic emergency braking with pedestrian, cyclist,
and motorcyclist detection, blind spot warning,
and rear cross-traffic warning are all standard.
So once you get inside the Grand Highlander,
you're immediately greeted by a sea
of kind of gray, dark plastics.
There's nothing fancy going on here, especially
with the XLE trim line.
It's hard not to notice the infotainment screen.
This is the standard 12.3-inch screen.
And really what jumps out at me is how simple
most of the controls are.
We're talking about hard buttons on the climate system.
Easy to adjust the temperature.
Rotary knob for the volume.
It's all very easy to master, easy to understand.
So the standard seat in our XLE trim line
includes a power driver's seat with two-way lumbar support.
Pretty easy to get comfortable sitting here.
It's a very reasonable seat.
Decent thigh support, decent lateral support.
However, the driving position is really
compromised in terms of where you're
going to rest your right elbow.
In the center console here, there's
a fair amount of padding right here.
But as you move your elbow sort of farther into the console,
this padding is much harder.
And it's kind of a mystery to me as to why
this is on different planes.
Why isn't this just one swath of soft material, instead
of it being like two-tiered?
It's just kind of an odd design characteristic.
Now, of course, everybody's body is different,
and your mileage may vary, which is
why here at Consumer Reports, we have people
of all shapes and sizes that are checking out the seat,
as well as the driving position.
So you can get the Grand Highlander
with captain's chairs or a rear bench,
but the whole point of this vehicle is the third row seat.
Now, how easy is it to get into?
Well, you flip this lever, move the seat forward,
and if you're a little kid, you can probably scamper back here
with no problems at all.
Adults, however, have a bit more challenge.
And for the kids back here, there's
tons of convenience items to keep them satisfied.
There are lots of cup holders for the second and third row.
There's USB ports everywhere.
There's even a second row climate system.
So with most vehicles of this type,
you usually have to make a decision-- are
you going to carry people or are you going to carry stuff?
But with the Grand Highlander, you
can put three people in the third row
and have a decent amount of cargo space behind.
And if you really want to make the Grand Highlander,
well, grand, you just fold down these seats,
and you've got tons of cargo room.
One of the evaluations that we do at Consumer Reports Auto
Test Center is we measure the actual volume of every SUV
and minivan.
So we're really excited to see how the Grand Highlander does
in our testing and how it stacks up to the competition.
So check back to consumerreports.org
for more information and our final test results.
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